East London Decapitator May Be Girl-Targeting Killer-in-the-Make

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Sometimes an innocent instance of "sticking it to the man" is not just sticking it to the man. It might be sticking it to women. Literally. Blood and all.

Words & Pictures takes a closer look at the activities of the East London Decapitator and observes the lauded ad-manipulator targets women five-to-one.

Considering the female half of Adrants is the Queen's Country right now, that's a ratio that literally hurts our necks.

Read the analysis, if only for the accompanying "DIE, BITCH" comic.

What do you think? Is this all in good fun, or the makings of a carte blanche psycho?



Obama Generates Still More Hype, May Win Votes of Hardened Racists...?

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Word on the street is Obama won the first-ever MySpace primary for the Democratic side, taking 46 percent of MySpace Democrat votes.

Having stolen the love of social networking's working-class, Bob Garfield -- ad commentator-cum-resident sociologist -- is willing to wager Obama will win racist redneck votes too, as long as he proves "acceptably black" (a la Halle Berry).

You cannot make this shit up.

Back on earth (or not), Jetpacks compares Obama to the ultra-sexy iPhone. That may be the best analogy we've heard all day.

Until Florida tears our hearts out through our throats, we're all for Team Obama too. (But more importantly, Team Obama's all for us!)

< / sinister laugh >

by Angela Natividad    Jan- 7-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Opinion, Trends and Culture



Obama Win Repositions 'Fearful America' as 'Young, Optimistic Country'

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"And the people of Iowa heard him, and chose to roll the dice," wrote Arianna Huffington last night, in a tone slightly reminiscent of the Old Testament.

Having dived headfirst into the choppy seas of political advertising (with help from Silverstein) in November, Huffington triumphantly positions Barack Obama's Iowa win as reason one and all should celebrate.

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by Angela Natividad    Jan- 4-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Good, Online, Opinion, Trends and Culture



After 14 Years, 'ER' Still Delivers Solid Drama

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14 years ago I started watching NBC's ER. 14 years later I'm still watching. Despite Marc Berman's continual trashing of the show in his MediaWeek column and his urging NBC to cancel, the show continues to shine. It's had its ups and downs but it continues to deliver solid, entertaining drama.

Last night's episode really stood out. After a nine-year absence, Gloria Reuben's Jeannie Boulet character made an appearance with her son who, as she did many years ago, suffers from HIV and was treated by Dr. Pratt who was undergoing difficulty maintaining his status as chief of the ER.

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by Steve Hall    Jan- 3-08    
Topic: Good, Opinion, Television



Chemistry.com Continues Attack on Homophobic eHarmony

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Chemistry.com has launched a follow up to its Hanft Raboy and Partners-created Come as you Are campaign with two new print ads attacking eHarmony's apparent refusal to allow gays and those who choose to have premarital sex to match using its dating service. It's long been reported eHarmony Founder Dr. Neil Clark Warren is a fairly evangelical Christian who has made his beliefs known regarding gays, lesbian and other things not "perfectly Christian."

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by Steve Hall    Jan- 3-08    
Topic: Campaigns, Good, Opinion, Trends and Culture



Cracked Posts List of Seductive Ads for Crap Items

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Cracked.com posted a list of the 10 Most Laughably Misleading Ads. It's scored 3439 diggs so far. The description:

"So you're an inventor, and you've just created a product that actually sucks quite a bit more than the ones people are already using. How do you sell it?

"Why, by creating a cornball TV ad that portrays everyday tasks as being next to impossible without your product. As we'll see, the results range from ridiculous to downright sad."

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by Angela Natividad    Jan- 3-08    
Topic: Online, Opinion, Packaging, Trends and Culture



Ad Tunes Releases Top Ad Music of 2007

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Something for the true ad junkies: Ad Tunes' Top Ad Music of '07! Show-stoppers in the more musical component of advertising include Beyonce, who made appearances in ads from Armani, AmEx, DirecTV and Samsung; the Beatles, which enjoyed a revival via Target and Luvs; and retailers who whored their brick-and-mortar brands out with poppy jingles.

Songs that benefited media this year included Just Like You Imagined off the 300 movie trailer, and Dirty Laundry by Bitter:Sweet for the ABC network.

If you're just that bored, up your ad music quotient with the TV jingles quiz.

by Angela Natividad    Jan- 2-08    
Topic: Online, Opinion, Trends and Culture



Some (Not Us) Feel Droga5 Isn't Worthy of Creativity's Agency of the Year

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In the spirit of living up to our apparent affinity for mudslinging as noted by MultiCultClassics, we give you this just-received tidbit from a reader who just doesn't think Droga5 should have been awarded Creativity's Agency of the Year crown.

The reader writes, "Apparently many higher up in the NY ad agency world are irritated and confused as to how Creativity could name Droga5 as agency of the year. they haven't produced one national campaign, have not one one new piece of business. no real breakthrough work for the year and the business they are producing for are pro-bono. people i know that work at Droga5 are equally as confused by the whole thing. internally they're hearing about "cut-backs." also pissed as to why the whole agency wasn't photographed for the cover. yikes. people are pointing to the obvious infatuation Creativity Magazine editors have with the agency. one female editor is roaming the halls at D5 a little too frequently. maybe it's droga's charm? i say, more power to em. screw the holding companies."

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by Steve Hall    Dec-21-07    
Topic: Agencies, Industry Events, Opinion



Some Tribes Share Love by Pissing on Snow

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We get a lot of holiday stuff from agencies, but rarely do we earn (is that the word?) a personal greeting from, like, one agency guy who happens to love us just that much.

Edward from JUXT Interactive is one exception. This year, he sent us an interactive greeting card where, to The First Noel, a bunch of dudes piss a message into the snow.

Nothing like the pairing of religious music and insult to fill us with glee. Aw shucks, Edward. Check your lawn tomorrow morning.

And make your own bio-friendly snow messages at Golden Tidings!

by Angela Natividad    Dec-19-07    
Topic: Agencies, Opinion



Promotional Hack Loses Footing, Stumbles Across Snapple Site

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[16:55] meeboguest722271: Hi there.
[16:56] meeboguest722271: I'm trying to get the word out about a great site redesign I stumbled across and as an avid reader I thought this would be a great place to start. How do you recommend I do that? The site is www.snapple.com

Why do people do this? Do they think we are dumb? Are we to believe someone actually "stumbled across" the website of a tiny little company called Snapple? By accident? Do they think we are so stupid as to not see through their lame promotional efforts? Is it so hard to simply say "we were involved in the redesign of" or "we are helping promote" Snapple's new site and we'd love to take a look at it."

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by Steve Hall    Dec-19-07    
Topic: Bad, Good, Online, Opinion